C o n s t r u c t i o n Te c h n o l o g y U p d a t e N o .

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Control of Floor Vibration

by D.E. Allen and G. Pernica
Excessive floor vibration has become a greater problem as new rhythmic
activities, such as aerobics, and long-span floor structures have become
more common. This Update describes the nature of floor vibration and
provides options for avoiding it through design, or in the case of existing
buildings, reducing or eliminating it through alterations.
Floor vibration is up-and-down motion Vibration Limits
caused by forces applied directly to the floor Floor vibration generally makes people
by people or machinery, or by vibration uneasy and creates fear of structural collapse,
transmitted through building columns, from although such fear is usually unwarranted
other floors or from the ground. because of the small displacements and
The problems associated with floor vibra- stresses that are actually produced. Never-
tion are not new. In 1828 Tredgold wrote theless, perceptible vibration is usually
“girders should always be made as deep as considered to be undesirable because it
they can to avoid the inconvenience of not affects people’s sense of well being and
being able to move on the floor without their ability to carry out tasks.
shaking everything in the room.”1 A simple Vibration limits, or acceptable thresholds,
floor deflection criterion (deflection of less are best expressed in terms of acceleration,
than span/360 under distributed live load) has as a percentage of the acceleration due to
been used to control ‘excessive shaking’ for gravity (g). The limit depends primarily on
more than 100 years. But today, when longer the context, that is, on what people are
spans, thinner floor decks, less structural doing when they experience the vibration.
damping (an absence of materials and com- For example, people sitting or lying down
ponents that absorb vibration energy), or the in offices or residences find distinctly
use of buildings for activities such as aerobics perceptible vibration (accelerations of about
are responsible for vibration problems, this 0.5% g) unacceptable, whereas those taking
approach does not work. However, new part in an activity such as aerobics will accept
guidelines that address and deal with these much greater vibration (about 10% g). People
problems — based on what people perceive dining beside a dance floor or standing in a
and find acceptable in terms of floor vibra- shopping mall will find vibrations that fall
tion — have recently been introduced. between these two extremes (about 2% g)
acceptable.
Generally, it is not the participants in a
particular activity or event who are most
disturbed by floor vibration, but those who
are located in adjacent spaces, as they find it
annoying or disruptive to their own activities.
If the vibration is very large (more than
20% g), and occurs frequently (e.g., in a
health club), then fatigue failure of the floor
can occur. To prevent collapse due to fatigue
or overloading, the National Building Code of
Canada (NBC) requires a dynamic analysis of
Figure 1. Repetitive forces produced by human activities a floor structure if it has a natural frequency
of less than 6 Hz.2
 Principal Cause
The main factor underlying most vibration
problems is resonance, which occurs when
a load is exerted on a floor at a particular
frequency. For example, a group of people
dancing applies a cyclic force (their footsteps)
to the floor at the frequency corresponding
to the beat of the music (see Figure 1). The
cyclic force produces a maximum floor
acceleration, which depends on the ratio of
the natural frequency of the floor structure
to the cyclic frequency of the applied force
(see Figure 2). When the natural frequency
of the floor coincides with, or is close to,
the forcing frequency, resonance occurs and
the consequences are most severe. During
each cycle of loading, more energy is fed
into the system and the magnitude of vibra-
tion grows, until a maximum is reached.
This maximum is dependent on the amount
of damping in the floor.
During any rhythmic activity, people
apply repeated forces to the floor, ranging
from 2 to 3 Hz. (This frequency is known as
the step frequency). For dancing, resonance
occurs if the natural frequency of the floor
is between 2 and 3 Hz.
If the repeated force has an impact compo-
nent, as is the case for aerobics in which every-
one jumps at the same time (see Figure 1),
then resonance can occur not only at the
step frequency, but also at multiples, or har-
monics, of this frequency. For example, an
aerobics class jumping to a beat of 2.5 Hz
(the step frequency) will produce harmonic
vibrations at multiples of 2.5 Hz — i.e., at
2.5 Hz (first harmonic), 5 Hz (second har-
monic), and 7.5 Hz (third harmonic). Since
the natural frequencies of most floors are
greater than 3 Hz (they often fall between
4 Hz and 8 Hz), problems are most likely to
occur as a result of the second and third har-
monics. However, the lower the harmonic the
larger the vibration produced by resonance.
Rhythmic Activities
Vibration problems due to rhythmic activities
occur in stadiums, auditoriums, buildings
with dance and health clubs, and convention
centres, which are used for a wide variety
of activities.
Table 1. Minimum Floor Frequencies (Hz) for Typical Activities
and Floor Constructions
Rhythmic Activity Steel/Concrete Floor Light-Frame Floor
Dancing and Dining 5 10
Aerobics 9 13
2
Figure 2. Floor acceleration due to a cyclic force
for a range of natural frequencies
Because of the large forces generated by
rhythmic activities, resonance vibration is
generally too large to be acceptable. To
control floor vibration due to a rhythmic
activity, the floor structure must be designed
to have a natural frequency greater than the
forcing frequency of the highest significant
harmonic, as shown in Figure 2. Minimum
acceptable natural frequencies are provided
in Table 1 for several combinations of activ-
ities and floor constructions.
For design purposes, the natural floor
frequency (fn in Hz) can be estimated using
a simple formula,
18
fn (Hz) =
∆(mm)
where ∆ is the total deflection of the floor
structure due to the weight supported by all
its members (joists, girders and columns).
For example, if the floor deflects 9 mm, the
natural frequency is 6 Hz. To get a natural
frequency of 9 Hz, the floor must deflect
only 4 mm, which is practically impossible
for floors supported on very long members to
achieve. (See References 2–4 for methods
of calculating natural frequency and floor
acceleration.)
The primary factors affecting the design of
floor structures for rhythmic activities are:
Span. The longer the floor span the lower
the natural frequency. Convention centres,
in particular, have very long floor spans
(approximately 30 m). It is generally not
practical to design such floor structures to
achieve the minimum natural frequency
shown in Table 1 for rhythmic activities
that have impact (e.g., aerobics). In this
situation, the choice is to relocate either the
rhythmic activity (to a stiffer floor) or the
sensitive occupants.
Storey height. The taller the columns
supporting the floor on which the rhythmic
activity takes place the lower the natural
frequency of the floor. An example of this
occurred when aerobics on the top storey of
a 26-storey building caused second harmonic
resonance due to the axial flexibility of the
columns. This resonance produced annoying
vibrations of approximately 1% g in the
offices below. Because the aerobics activity
could not be relocated in the building, it
had to be terminated.
Selecting the location for a rhythmic
activity (i.e., storey, floor area, etc.) is there-
fore the most important consideration in
the design of floors. Properly positioning
sensitive occupancies relative to rhythmic
activities is also important. See the
“Measures to Remedy Vibration Problems”
section of this Update for guidance.
Walking Vibration
Walking vibration, which is largely depen-
dent on the type of floor construction, is
also an important consideration in the
design of floor structures of most buildings.
Steel/Concrete Floor Construction
A steel floor with a concrete deck usually
has a natural frequency of between 3 Hz
and 10 Hz. A person walking across a floor
applies a force at a step frequency of approx-
imately 2 Hz, which can result in resonance
build-up when the natural floor frequency
is around 2, 4, 6 or 8 Hz. As for previously
mentioned activities, the higher the harmonic
the lower the magnitude of resonance.
A design criterion has recently been dev-
eloped3 in which the acceleration due to har-
monic resonance is calculated and compared
with a vibration limit, e.g., 0.5% g, for office
and residential occupancies. If the limit is
exceeded, design alterations can include:
Increased damping. Damping of the floor
system (increasing the rate of removal of
vibrational energy) reduces resonance vibra-
tion (see Figure 2) and thus annoyance. It
depends primarily on the presence of non-
structural components such as partitions,
ceilings, mechanical services and furnishings.
Full-height partitions are most effective in
adding damping to the floor system.3
Increased stiffness. This raises the natural
frequency of the floor, shifting resonance to
a higher harmonic, which reduces the mag-
nitude of resonance vibration and hence
annoyance. Stiffening methods include
increasing floor member depths and ensur-
ing that there is composite action between
the beams and the concrete slab.3
In the case of solid concrete floors, which
have high mass and stiffness, walking
vibration is rarely a problem. Some precast
concrete floor systems may, however,
require evaluation.4
Light-Frame Construction
Light-frame floors of wood or cold-formed
steel joists with a wood deck typically have
floor frequencies of between 10 Hz and 30
Hz. Someone walking across a floor can be
a source of annoyance to a person sitting in
a room because of the jolts caused by sud-
den changes in floor elevation produced by
each footstep.
Design considerations for light-frame
construction include:
Stiffening. The actual stiffness of a light-
frame floor depends not only on the stiffness
of the joists but also on the transverse
stiffness of the floor system (from floor deck,
cross bridging, blocking, etc.) and on the
composite action of the joists and deck.
Increasing floor stiffness reduces the jolts
due to walking.
Deflection criterion. When walking vibra-
tion is likely to be an issue, e.g., in a house
or multi-family dwelling, light-frame floors
should be designed to meet the deflection
criterion for a 1 kN concentrated force
(as shown in Figure 3). This decrease in
allowable deflection with increase in span
is due to a number of factors described in
Reference 4.
The most practical approach for designing
light-frame floors to minimize the effects of
walking is to develop span tables based on
calculations that satisfy the Figure 3 criterion,
e.g., those contained in Part 9 of the NBC.
To evaluate floor systems not covered by the
NBC span tables, see Reference 4.
Measures to Remedy Vibration
Problems
There are a wide variety of actions that can
be taken to correct floor vibration problems
in existing buildings. These actions can be
categorized as follows:
3
Floor deflection due to 1 kN force, mm 2.5
2.0 Unacceptable
1.5 Reduction of -0.6(L-2)
0.6 + 2.5e
effects. It may
1.0 suffice to do
Acceptable nothing about
the floor vibra-
0.5 tion itself, but
rather to make
0 alterations that
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
reduce the
Span, m
annoyance
Figure 3. Design criterion for light-frame floors associated with
the vibration.
These include the elimination of noise (e.g.,
rattling) due to floor vibration, and removing
or rearranging articles that vibrate noticeably.
Relocation of activities. Either the source
of vibration (e.g., aerobics or machinery) or
the sensitive occupancy may be relocated.
For example, a planned aerobics exercise
area might be relocated from the top floor
of a building to the ground or first floor.
Complaints of walking vibration can some-
times be resolved by relocating people, or
equipment, to areas where vibration is less
likely to occur, e.g., placing them near a
column.
Stiffening. Increasing the stiffness of the
floor can reduce vibration due to walking or
other rhythmic activities. Introducing new
columns between existing columns from
the affected floor down to the foundations
is very effective in the case of flexible floor
structures, but is often unacceptable to the
owner. If there is sufficient ceiling space,
welding new components to the bottom
flanges of steel beams or joists (as shown
in Figure 4) is an effective technique.3
Light-frame floors can be stiffened by adding
transverse stiffening, such as decking or
blocking.4 However, it is important to
determine whether the vibration is caused
by flexible supports (poor seating, flexible
beams, etc.) before proceeding with stiffen-
ing the joists.4
Figure 4. Stiffening technique for steel joists and beams
“Construction Technology Updates” is a series of technical articles containing
practical information distilled from recent construction research.
For more information, contact Institute for Research in Construction,
National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa K1A 0R6
Telephone: (613) 993-2607; Facsimile: (613) 952-7673; Internet: http://irc.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Damping. For steel/concrete construction,
walking vibrations can be improved by
increasing the amount of damping of the
floor system. The less damping there is in
the existing floor, the more effective the
added damping. The addition of nonstruc-
tural components that interact with the
floor structure, such as drywall in the ceiling
space, provides some damping if there is
little to begin with. There are also other
damping devices, such as damper posts or
tuned mass dampers, that can be effective
in reducing floor vibration.3
Isolation. An effective method for reducing
floor vibration due to machinery is to isolate
the machine from the floor by placing it on
soft springs.3,4
Summary
Most floor vibration problems are caused by
resonance and, for light-frame construction,
sudden deflections due to footsteps. Vibration
can usually be controlled by stiffening the floor
structure, although sometimes the problems
can be addressed by adding damping or by
isolating equipment. Proper placement of an
activity (e.g., aerobics) or machinery in the
building is the most important consideration.
References
1. Tredgold, T., 1824, Elementary Principles
of Carpentry, 2nd Ed., Publisher unknown.
2. User’s Guide — NBC 1995 Structural
Commentaries (Part 4). Commentary A:
Serviceability Criteria for Deflections and
Vibrations.
3. AISC/CISC Steel Design Guide Series
No. 11: Floor Vibrations Due to Human
Activity. American Institute of Steel
Construction, Chicago, Ill., 1997.
4. ATC Guide on Floor Vibration. Applied
Technology Council. Redwood City, CA,
1999.
Dr. D.E. Allen is a guest research officer in the
Building Envelope and Structure Program at the
National Research Council’s Institute for
Research in Construction.
Dr. G. Pernica is a research officer with IRC’s
Building Envelope and Structure Program.
© 1998
National Research Council of Canada
December 1998
ISSN 1206-1220